Tuesday, November 25, 2014

I
chose some gorgeous images to use! I had a small glass jar that I
thought might make a nice tea light holder. It was put away for the
right time and when I saw these images from Nicecrane Designs I knew I
had found the perfect thing to decorate the tea light holder.

The first thing I did was change the images to sepia, which is very easy to do using any photo editing program.

I then cut out the images with an oval cutter that I have. I stuck all the images onto the glass jar with Matt Multi Medium.

I
also used one plain paper oval that I had stamped 'Joyeux Noel' and
some flourishes in Potting Soil Archival ink. This was stuck onto the
glass with multi medium too.

Then
I painted all around the the glass jar with a couple of coats of Nougat
Fresco paint. When doing this I wasn't planning on being too 'neat' - I
wanted it to have a slightly antique, chipped and cracked appearance.

After dabbing the paint with some Gathered Twigs DI, I covered the painted area with a coat of crackle glaze. When the
glaze was dry and crackled, I rubbed in some Chocolate Pudding Fresco
Paint and wiped away with a baby wipe.

The jar was then given three coats of matte varnish.

Lace was stuck to the rim of the jar and a bit of Vintage Photo DI was smudged around the edges.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

This month we are shining the spotlight on the winner of the 'Autumnal Image Inspiration' Challenge that was hosted by Claudia!

Claudia selected Bonnie as her winner and so we are thrilled to be welcoming Bonnie as this months Top Talent - for the second time!!!

Will Bonnie be the first person to win the Gold Winners Badge?

Before we show you Bonnie's stunning creation, let's just spend
some time finding out a little bit more about this wonderful lady.....

1. How long have you been crafting and what made you start crafting?

I
have been crafting really since I was a small child… loved paper dolls
and would design new outfits and then also new ‘folders’ to keep all
them in… sometimes I would even draw the paper doll.. I loved to draw.
So I would have to say around 7-8 …. But then my best friend and I
painting my Mom’s kitchen with finger paints when we were 5 so maybe
that was my first crafting experience??? What do you think??? Interior
Designing at the age of 5. LOL

2. What is the most useless item that you have purchased for your craft?

Some
Die cuts that I have not used and most likely won’t… But mistakes are
so we can learn… and I have since re-evaluated ‘toys’ and equipment that
I purchase… how many times am I REALLY going to use this, is it worth
that kind of money for that number of uses, does it allow me to
experience my art the way I desire…

3. Describe a real life experience that inspired you artistically

I
use to live in Greenwich Village in the 60’s… and we use to try and
raise money for different community affairs, and so we use to draw on
the sidewalks with chalk and have a coffee can near us… there use to be
10- 15 of us… and we would all be working on each others art… it was
very rewarding, learning, and loving in so very many ways… I learned so
many different wonderful techniques, drawing skills, loving feelings
about others, and also the art of enjoying people of all kinds. We are
all so very wonderful when we connect with our hearts and allow that
energy to flow out to others. Since that time, I have loved following
my BLISS… which is my art of life. This is one of the reasons that when
I became an Art Therapist, I was so very comfortable with that
profession.

4. Whats the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

To follow my BLISS in all ways, at all times.

5. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?

Have
a successful etsy store… LOL.. truth. I use to have a few spare guest
rooms… and one is filled with all my art projects that need homes… from
cards, (over 2000 cards) tags, boxes (over 200 plus), books that need
to go to people to fill with their pictures, little art books from
challenges, Journals that I have made, jewelry, framed Zentangles, way
to many zentangles unframed that need to also find homes… (well over
500) and the list goes on and on… and then I found huge bins of things
that are all vintage from my Mother and MIL that need to find homes too…
OMGoodness.. will I ever have this spare room back??? So I am trying
to have a successful etsy store now…if you would like to visit and take a
look… you might even find something that you would like to make room
for… I am at Love, Light and Peace on etsy. I am
very prolific so I think I will have things to sell for at least a few
months… LOL… what do you think.. maybe a generation or two also… I
love to create.

6. Is there something you wish you were better at?

Yes…
a lot of things… mainly following my BLISS all the time… I love to
do my art with paints, inks, paper and scissors… but I also love to
cook… I have written a few collaged cook books that are selling pretty
good… Cook Your Art Out and also Cook Your Art NOW… but I would like to
write a book that is very detailed with the ART of Cooking in the
truest sense… creating with what you have on hand. Sort of like
creating a piece of Jewelry with something you have on hand.. that is
why I have created this piece of jewelry today… it is something that we
can all create… very easily, with things that we have on hand… think
about it as you look at this necklace… HOW CAN I MAKE THAT… I would do
this differently and this … and I would add this and that… and now that
you have that in your mind, make it… I would like to be able to teach
that to others to do with cooking, living, and also in the arts… so very
important to become self sufficient in so many different things on this
particular Earth Walk… making a statement of Love, Light and Peace.

7. Describe yourself in five words

Creative, Energetic, loving, artistic, prolific!!! I need to balance MORE… and am working on that NOW. Balance in all things.

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Thanks so much for being here Bonnie! We are so glad to have you here with us for a second time. ....now it is time to shine the spotlight on the Top Talent creation - So let's see what Bonnie made for us this time!

Bonnie has made us a wonderful handmade necklace! To see some more details on how to make it please click this link

I love this Bonnie! This is such a gorgeous necklace - I am sure you will be inspiring many people to have a go! It really has been such an honour to feature this wonderful creation at Our Creative Corner.

Thank you so much for being such a wonderful Top Talent in the spotlight!

If you want to see more photos and details of this wonderful
creation and find out how it was made, then please go along to Bonnie's blog and say "Hello" - I am sure she would love to see you there!

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Would you like to see your work here in the 'Our Creative Corner' Spotlight?

You could be here as our 'Top Talent' with the spotlight shining on something you have created!

All you have to do is enter the It's Magic
challenge and if you are picked as the winner you will be invited to
appear here as our Top Talent and have the spotlight shine on something
you have made. We will also ask you some questions so that we can be nosey find out more about you....

You could also be one of our Top 3 and you could even be the lucky winner of a voucher to spend at the Nicecrane Designs

There is one more week of the It's Magic challenge left, so why not have fun creating!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

If you've never explored the huge range of printable images and collections available at Nicecrane Designs, it's high time you did! If you're not a scrapbooker or card-maker, you may have thought printables weren't really up your street. I hope to show you today that they can play a role in mixed media crafting too. Here's just some of what I've been creating... It may be time to grab a cup of coffee!

I started very simply. Once I'd downloaded the individual files, I put them all into a Word document and re-sized them to approximately ATC size, so that all six were on one page - almost exactly as the preview picture above shows them. Then, rather than printing onto plain paper, I chose an A4 sheet from the Prima Cartographer pad and printed them directly onto that.

A bit of simple cutting and inking and I now have six great little cards/tags to insert into a scrapbooking layout or to include in a layered vintage-style card. (The four on the right are inked already; the two on the left are still in a nice pristine state.) Homemade ephemera in an instant!

Next, I picked my favourite of the images and copied and resized it on the second page of my document. I wanted to try printing onto tissue paper so that I'd be able to use the image more flexibly in mixed media situations. You can't put the tissue paper through by itself, so you have to attach it to a "carrier sheet" of stronger paper. There are many tutorials for this on the internet, including several on youtube. Some use spray glue, some use glue sticks. I ended up using this method with double-sided tape - partly because I didn't have any temporary spray glue, but mainly because I could see she had the same printer as I have, so that encouraged me to hope I wouldn't kill the printer by doing it! And it all went smoothly, I'm happy to say...

Once printed and trimmed free of the taped edges, I tore around the images. If you have a torn edge rather than a sharp cut it's much more likely to "disappear" once you've glued/painted/spritzed around it. My plan for the larger of the two images was to make a shabby chic style wooden hanging. I started by coating a wooden plaque with DecoArt Chalk Paint, mixing Rustic (basically brown) and Relic (a dark grey) directly onto the wood.

The next layer was a coat of the American Decor Crackle Medium - specially formulated by DecoArt for their chalk paints - and then a topcoat of Everlasting (a.k.a. white!). Once it had dried and crackled to my heart's content, I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to warm-up the edges and give it that shabby age-stained look.

I applied multi-medium to the reverse of my tissue paper image (not to the plaque as the moisture would make the Distress Ink run) and smoothed it down onto the wood. Once I'd made sure there were no wrinkles, I applied the multi-medium over the top too to seal it.

I love that you can clearly see the crackles through the image, giving the impression that the whole thing has weathered together over the years.

I did a little bit of extra inking over the top of the tissue...

... and added simple rustic twine to hang the plaque up by.

Next, a tag (of course!) which uses one of my patterned paper ephemera pieces as well as the tissue paper printing, this time over a different crackle medium.

For this one I started by applying DecoArt Crackle Paste to a large tag with a palette knife, and leaving it to crackle.

Well, I say leaving it... It got going with the crackling as it dried, but time started to press, and I decided to see if I could help things along with the heat gun in the places where I'd applied the paste more thickly. Lots of crackle mediums don't like being hurried, and sure enough the crackle was a bit reluctant to play ball under the added heat. However I did get this fabulous bubble effect instead - just as much fun!

Patience is a virtue, but impatience leads to happy accidents.

I gave the whole tag a wash of white paint, and then applied multi-medium to my medium-sized tissue paper bird in order to stick him over the crackly top half of the tag.

The much subtler texture where the paste was fairly thin gives a lovely porcelain crackle effect to the image.

Once it was all dry, I applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink with a blending tool to highlight all the different textures.

I selected the Parisian chair tag from my homemade ephemera...

... and a photo of Gloria Swanson downloaded from the internet and printed onto glossy photo paper...

... and set to work to do her justice with the embellishments. I altered some paper roses using sprays made up from Luminarte Primary Elements powders in Hopeful Honeysuckle and Hot Cinnamon, as well as a spritz or two of Tattered Rose Distress Stain Spray.

I broke up the Prima wooden chequerboard embellishment and spritzed it with the same sprays to create a base for the flowers.

And I used Ginger and Rust alcohol inks to tint the Word Band before smoothing on Antique Linen Distress Paint and wiping it back to leave the paint just in the lettering.

The Idea-ology Plaquette has had a drop or two of the same alcohol inks rubbed in to mute the bright white tone.

The Trellis Framework bits from another project have been sitting around for ages waiting to be used up. They toned in perfectly with the palette here, and I added some flourish stamping around the edges to draw the eye inward towards that fabulous bubble texture!

And the seam binding at the top was gathered up from the tiny packages included when you order from The Funkie Junkie Boutique (last month's sponsor here). They were all a very delicate pink, so I spritzed a couple of them with the Hot Cinnamon and Hopeful Honeysuckle, while leaving the others pale and pretty in between.

And I still have five more pieces of ephemera ready to use on future projects...

So there you have it - printables used in pretty much their simplest form, as well as with crackle mediums, paints and inks.

I hope you'll check out the other Sponsor Spotlights here this month, and do visit Nicecrane Designs to see what they could add to your crafting.

And if you enter this month's Our Creative Corner challenge, It's Magic, you might be lucky enough to go shopping there with your prize draw winnings! Check out all the details and come and play along here.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

I am really proud she said "Yes" when being invited over to Our Creative Corner! I have been admiring her work ever since I discovered scrapbooking and her special way of doing it!

She has an incredible talent for composition and I love how she works with colours and textures! Her layouts speak of her love for nature and family and it shows especially with the love and labour she puts into detail. I adore the wonderful monochrome vintage colour schemes she creates and her grunge or shabby chic style. They're perfect!

Her work never fails to inspire me as it always tells of freedom in self-exploration through art. Something I truly admire with art in general. I am so grateful that Heather followed my invitation to share some of her fantastic art with us today at Our Creative Corner!

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Hi there everyone and a warm welcome to Our Creative Corner. I was both thrilled and excited to be asked by Kerstin to Guest design for the month of November. Thanks so much Kerstin, for including me with a bunch of talented creatives .

I love Vintage and I decided to use a photo of my beautiful Grand daughter Ella Jai taken by my talented daughter Tara .The sepia photo has been de-saturated, to create an aged look.